Create, Pitch, Sell

Synopsis:
The gruesome discovery of a woman's corpse in the small, tourist resort of Point Jove, Missouri draws Sheriff Josh Wolfe, a widower who enjoys tinkering with his award winning hot rod, into the most perilous case of his career. Hounded by the townsfolk and media, Wolfe exhausts every conventional method for solving the crime. The investigation comes to a standstill.

Then, four more residents disappear. Everyone is convinced Rhone County is harboring a serial kidnapper who chooses his victims by chance. Wolfe believes the people are not only related to one another but are somehow tied to the last surviving member of the county's namesake.

Time is not only running out for Sheriff Wolfe but for his lover, dissatisfied wife of a homebuilder, held against her will at the Rhone family's abandoned sawmill where spilled gasoline awaits a lighted match.

Synopsis:
Determined to protect the natural beauty of Eagle Rock Lake from homebuilders, while also protecting his lucrative meth lab and pot farm, Stan Barstow sets fire to newly built lakeview homes to scare away prospective buyers. To gain fortune and fame, he films the wanton destruction with the intention of making a docudrama to sell to Hollywood.

Kyle Barstow very much wants to relocate to Chicago, and become a part of a forensics task force as a crime scene photographer. He offers to make a recording of the burning buildings in order to hone his skills in film and digital photography. To finance the expensive move to Illinois, he becomes involved in Stan's drug business, without his knowledge or consent.

When one of the brothers is shot and killed, the other moves quickly to think up a new get-rich-quick scheme, unaware that someone knows his secrets.

Synopsis:
After his brother is murdered, Kyle Barstow comes up with a new get-rich-quick scheme so he can leave Missouri forever. He starts by convincing Shelby Adair to help him extort one million dollars from her wealthy parents. The plan is simple. Make believe she’s been buried alive. Send the first set of GPS coordinates and a ransom note to the Point Jove Sheriff’s Department. Instead of risking capture from collecting the money, they would break into the Adair’s safe that Shelby assured Kyle contained more than a million dollars. While the authorities are busy stumbling around in the dark searching for a kidnapped victim that does not exist, he and Shelby would quietly disappear.

Their plan begins to unravel when a severe thunderstorm rips through Rhone County causing major damage and confusion. A capped PVC pipe containing the final clue is swept away in rising floodwaters.

CAPTIVITY, BETRAYAL, PAYBACK (Backwoods Justice trilogy): The gruesome discovery of a woman’s corpse in the tourist resort of Point Jove, Missouri draws Sheriff Josh Wolfe into the most perilous case of his career.

KILLING SUMMER: Blackmailed for murder, unable to prove his innocence, a man involves the local sheriff in his plans for revenge.

* The trilogy is one continuous story with several subplots. About 460 single-spaced pages. About 200,000 words. * I loved the characters so much I planned to write six to eight more books, and call it The Point Jove series.* The first book was originally titled The Cabin. A quick search at the local library revealed 26 titles containing the word Cabin.* The titles Hellfire Trilogy, Smoke on the Water, Fire Flicks, and Ashes of Vengeance were renamed on June 5, 2014.* The book cover art has been changed six times.* Point Jove, Missouri is a fictitious place.* I can't say who the antagonist was modeled after without revealing the identity of the antagonist.* Preston and Julie Terrace were named after the characters portrayed by Henry Fonda and Bette Davis in the movie Jezebel.* Sheriff Joshua Wolfe could be the actor Sam Elliot at age 53.* Paige Cole-Denham is someone close to me [but not me]. * Realtor Willard Wiley is a lot like the character Deputy Barney Fife.* The church in the movie Jeepers Creepers inspired the description of the church in Payback.* Degotoga is a Cherokee word that means "standing together".* I am one of the characters in the trilogy. I'll never say who.* I used to have an English springer spaniel. His name is Lincoln. Someone poisoned him. His memory lives on with this trilogy.
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Copyright 2013-2016 Sharon A. Austin All Rights Reserved.